$80k In Debt Worth It for Ivy Undergrad?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
I am with you on this, for Asians, if you don't achieve 2x of your "mainstream" counterparts achieve, you will be exploited and work hard for nothing. There is no middle ground. |
Anonymous
|
Take a year off and figure out what you like to do and are good at. Then go back and get the degree at Columbia - an Ivy League degree pays dividends forever, so don't just walk away from it. I should know, I went to an Ivy - failed a few classes, took a year off and came back and did better - and graduated. I did not love it and definitely felt out of place with all the old money crowd, but it has helped open and keep open many doors for me throughout my 30 year career. And no, not one employer has ever asked me about my college grades!
|
Anonymous
| Op, if you can handle some classes (humanity) not others (stem), maybe Columbia is just too hard for you. Do you think of yourself a smart, hard working girl mentally damaged by parents, or a stressed student of average intelligence somehow placed in an elite college? It seems your parents can’t help you much beyond pushing you in a good college. You’ll have to make a living by actually working with knowledge. I suggest you choose what makes you feel comfortable and confident, or it’s gonna be a lifetime struggle. |
Anonymous
Agree, especially if your parents are first-gen immigrants. |
Anonymous
This is so false it's laughable!!! There *are* colleges in the U.S. other than Columbia. Your notion that a humanities basket weaving degree from Columbia would make a huge difference in OP's future earnings is a joke. It's a bullsh-- degree. She may as well attend state college. |
Anonymous
What if they let her take a year off due to medical/mental health issues, and the next year, her parents income decreases and she doesn't owe 40k/semester or whatever anymore. |
Anonymous
Yeah, well OP is better off with a basket weaving degree from Columbia than from Cal State. I don't think going to a less selective school will make it easier for OP to complete a STEM major -- it will be arguably harder to complete a CS degree from a state school given how much grade inflation Columbia has. OP, I think you're destined to major in a useless liberal arts degree. In that case, you're WAY better off at Columbia. |
Anonymous
Holy shit, it's terrifying that someone as ignorant as you as a college admissions consultant. PP, you fully KNOW that a Columbia degree will pay off dividends for the rest of OP's life, especially as she's a second-gen Asian immigrant. That's the only reason why you're even in business as a college admissions consultant -- parents KNOW that an Ivy degree is invaluable in the job market. OP, do NOT listen to PP. Either she's not really an admissions consultant, or if she is, she's a really bad one. $80k in debt is LITERALLY NOTHING (like, literally peanuts) for a Columbia degree. Anyone who tells you otherwise is financially illiterate. Stay at Columbia NO MATTER WHAT! Even if you want to go into Morningside Park alone at night. |
Anonymous
OP, LISTEN TO THIS POSTER! $80k is insignificant compared to the amount of money Columbia will bring. |
Anonymous
OP here, I think I'm both. I am a relatively dull, hard working girl of ordinary intelligence (definitely not gifted or anything, except maybe in the language arts) who has been mentally damaged by my parents' incessant pushing which somehow landed me at an elite school. |
Anonymous
Sounds like a nice job, but it'll probably only pay enough for me to pay the interest on my loans and not chip away at the principle. |
Anonymous
|
Anonymous
Please understand your parents didn't get you into this school. You got yourself there. They may have lit the fire that got you to do the things that got you in, but you are the one who did them. You are capable of graduating from Columbia if you want to. Look how far you've gotten already! We have all had to adjust and regroup based on what it turns out we are actually good at - and how much effort we actually want to put in. I started off at BigLaw - after graduating from Columbia Law actually - and realized almost immediately I did not have the drive to do that job. So now I do something else, that's more in line with how much energy I am actually capable of and interested in putting into work. Lots of my classmates - and you want to talk about stressed out, highly driven people - have done the same. We're happier than if we'd kept doing the thing that was out of whack with what our bodies and brains actually want from us. You need to get out of this mindset that your only reasonable path is doing medicine, finance, or law. There is a world out there, for you to explore. Give yourself the freedom to explore it - but you don't need to do that by telling yourself it's because you're not good enough. You ARE. Look how far you've gotten already! But this isn't for you. It's not for most people in the world. I'd suggest, on top of what you're already doing, maybe watching a bunch of movies or reading a bunch of novels about kids who have bucked their parents' expectations, sometimes at great personal cost. It might help you to see even these fictionalized versions of what it is you are trying to do. |
Anonymous
OP here. I was actually hoping to talk to a college admissions consultant, but I hesitated to reach out to the ones in my area since they're ridiculously expensive. I was wondering if you'd be willing to email me at venusgreenfield28@gmail.com -- I totally understand if you're hesitant to email some Internet rando and decide not to contact me. However, you seem like one of the (few) people on this board who can agree with me that $80k in debt is not worth it, and I was wondering if I could solicit your advice on a couple other things. No worries if you'd rather not contact me though. |
Anonymous
not worth 80k in loans for a "useless liberal arts degree." Nope. |